Wipro threat case: Karnataka Home Minister asks cops to brace for more such challenges

The cyber-crime police had registered a case following a complaint from Wipro, according to which, an unidentified person had threatened to use a toxic agent on the firm's campuses if it did not pay up Rs 500 crore in bitcoinsET Bureau | Updated: May 09, 2017, 09:06 IST

Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara cited software firm Wipro's complaint at a meeting with top IPS officers on Sunday while asking them to brace themselves for more such challenges in the days to come.

The cyber-crime police had, on Friday, registered a case following a complaint from Wipro, according to which, an unidentified person had threatened to use a toxic agent on the firm's campuses if it did not pay up Rs 500 crore in bitcoins. The sender provided two links to Wipro asking it to wire the money and gave a deadline of May 25.

“The police have taken up an intensive investigation. They are looking for the IP address from which the mail was sent. The police are even suspecting it could be a proxy server,“ Parameshwara said.

“I made a reference to this case at a meeting of senior police officers on Sunday, and warned that the number of such instances of cybercrime will only increase in the days to come,“ he said. “Cybercrime is the order of the day and the police have to be careful. I have told senior officers to train our police personnel in handling them,“ he said.

The police, the home minister explained, are probing Wipro's complaint using the relevant provisions under the IPC in view of its exhaustive nature, unlike with cybercrime laws.

“The police are tapping various sources as part of their investigation,“ said Parameshwara. Appropriate provisions of laws are being used to probe the complaint of threat Wipro received via an email.

The Bengaluru police are treating the email threat as a case of criminal intimidation also because it does not fully fall under the definition of cyber crime. It was more of a threat attracting the provisions of IPC, rather than cyber laws, the police said.

Six weeks ago, Infosys office at Chennai too had received a letter, in which the sender had threatened to spread anthrax at its campus if it did not pay a ransom. It was a letter, and not an email, and the threat was later found to be a hoax.